Praedicator

Verba

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - Tuesday in the Second Week of Easter

[Acts 4:32-37 and John 3:7b-15]

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all......

These words from the Acts of the Apostles have had a tremendous influence. They are quoted by St. Augustine at the beginning of his "Rule" and were taken into the Dominican constitutions as well. Bishop Diego of Osma in Spain took St. Dominic with him on a diplomatic mission to Denmark. They passed through Southern France where the Albigensian heresy was in full swing and a papal response was underway. That response consisted of bishops and abbots traveling in high style and trying to outpreach the heretics. The lifestyle of the heretics was more convincing to the average person of the time and Diego and Dominic saw this. This laid the kernel of the idea of an order of preachers whose lifestyle was consistent with their preaching. The scriptural inspiration came from the two descriptions of the early Christian community in Acts (2:42-47) and in today's first scripture.
It is important not to divorce these descriptions from the rest of the story in Acts. All was not sweetness and nice smiles all the time! There were disagreements and quarrels just as any community will have! However, one can sense an "inspired intentionality" that is the work of the Holy Spirit - a desire to work out anything that could be an obstacle, rather than abandoning the whole project because of human faults and failings. In our American society, observers back as far as the early 19th century (De Toqueville especially) noted that individualism is the defining trait - a trait that has become a serious social problem in our day. If we are to recapture some of the inspired intentionality of the early Christian community, we will have to give up a lot of our individualism. It will be a daunting challenge, but the Holy Spirit is a guaranteed element! AMEN